This invention relates to down rigger systems used in deep water fishing, more particularly to an improvement in the boom structure permitting pivoting of the boom to a vertical storage position when the system is not in use.
In deep water fishing, lures commonly must be maintained at depths exceeding fourty feet. To assure that the lure is accurately positioned at the depth desired, a separate down rigger cable is employed having at its end a heavy weight from which the fishing line, upon the end of which is attached the lure, is connected thereto releasibly when a fish strikes. Down riggers are mechanical devices used to regulate the depth of the heavy weight, being composed generally of a base, a reel mechanism, and a boom member designed to support and position the cable, and the attached fishing line, well beyond the gunwhale of the boat, the purpose of which is to assure that the lines are kept away from the propellers during trolling as well as from interferring when a plurality of down riggers are in use at one time, as is usually the case. Often, these booms are quite long, on the order of five feet or more. They are horizontally attached to the down rigger base and can create problems of ingress and egress for the passengers on the boat as well as difficulties in maneuvering the boat, depending on the base location and the positional orientation of the boom. Present down rigger systems employ a horizontal pivot in the base which permits rotation of the boom along a plane parallel to the water surface. However, no matter what position the boom is rotated to, the boom continues to cause difficulty in that its substantial length all but assures no horizontal position will render it entirely out of the way, for all purposes and all situations.
The present invention solves this long standing problem by inserting a novel hinge unit between the down rigger base and the boom, permitting the boom to be rotated vertically to a position which is truly out of the way in terms of maneuvering the boat and freedom of movement of the passengers.
In the pertinent prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 1,619,512 to Heckman, discloses a means to vertically rotate the boom in a down rigger system utilizng a toothed clutch member which engages in response to tightening of a bolt. This solution, however, necessitates that the user be carefully attentive when rotating the boom, as no stays defining the preferred final angular position of the boom are provided. Further, the user would find the necessity of loosening a bolt sufficiently to allow for disengagement of the clutch teeth and rotating the boom while concomitently being careful to keep the potentially interlocking teeth at all times separated to be awkward and generally difficult to accomplish, especially in light of the often present heavy seas encountered in deep water fishing.
The present invention solves the need to provide an effective, simple, convenient and easy to use vertical pivoting means for down rigger booms. It is, therefore, the object of the invention to provide a hinge that is fully adaptable to conventional down rigger devices which will permit the vertical pivoting of down rigger booms in a manner which assures solid, controlled guidance and at the same time minimum of effort and difficulty to the user by providing automatically executing stays defining the final angular positions of the boom. This and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following specification.